Call for papers: Categories in research and policy on migration and transnationalism

Categories can serve analytical and bureaucratic purposes. But to what extent are the categories available to us, analytically and bureaucratically, in the fields of migration and transnationalism, useful to make sense of the empirical realities at hand?

We invite papers which empirically and/or theoretically, drawing on quantitative or qualitative data, which interrogate categories of migration and transnationalism.

For instance, to what extent are the categories 'migrant' and 'ex-pat' helpful in understanding the dynamics and drivers of leading a transnational life? What of 'refugees' and 'migrants'? Or of 'labour migrants' and 'mobile workers'? How does the distinction between immigrants and non-migrants, shed useful analytical light on contemporary mobilities?

We encourage papers which deal with empirical contexts in the Global North as well as in the Global South, spanning intra-EU mobility, intra-regional migration in Asia, Africa or the Americas, and international migration to Europe.

The session is organized as part of the research project Transnational lives and the welfare state (TRANSWEL) (www.prio.org/transwel), funded by the Research Council of Norway, 2015-2019. Session organisers: Jørgen Carling, Marta Bivand Erdal, Cathrine Talleraas (PRIO)

Please submit abstracts of 250 words. Please also include your name, institutional affiliation, and position and submit in the online form here by Wednesday 6 December.

You will receive notification about whether or not your abstract is included in the proposed session on Friday 8 December.